Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-05-19
FROM STRAND TO STRAND!
HANOVER HOTEL, EDINBURGH, |
Scotland, April 18th, 1887. !

Scotland, April 18th, 1887.
Dear Daughter B.
I wrote NJ from Cork, Ireland, on
the 7th inst, giving an incomplete rec
ord OF my voyage from n. Y. to that
point, and now l will try and tell you
what has happened to me since then.
After stroll through Cork on the
morning of the 9TH, alone-my steamer
friend F., being good Catholic. has
gone to church, meet Mr.. F. again
and he suggests ride about town OH
one of:h far-famed Irish jaunting cars.
l was very anxious for the experiment,
having heard and read of them all my
life. However, before starting, let me
tell you something about the city, as
seen in my ramble. 1t is built on the
river Lee. The river is cut into sew
eral parts, and each section confined
between immense stone walls;
1.-THE spreading Lee that, like an island fayre,
Encloseth Corke with his divided foode."
The stream is small at low tide, but
when the tide is in the banks are quite
full. The different parts of the town
are connected by five stone bridges.
Everything seems built of stone; and
throughout Ireland what strikes the
tourist is the lavish use of stone in ev-
cry sort of structure. The houses are
all of stone. Churches, colleges, hos
pitfalls, dwellings, everything built by
human hands, is of this most durable
and least infiummable material. The
roofs are of slate, and many of them
are covered with moss, showing both
their antiquity and also the popularity
of this climate in covering everything
| inanimate with green. The island is
called Green Erin, you know, or Green
Isle.
II my ramble I notice that great
deal of traffic is done by the aid of a
| very diminutive sort of donkey, driven
by very small boy. The load is very
much out of proportion, seemingly, as
it is four times as large as donkey, cart
and boy put together. 1t was source
of constant surprise to me to see these
little fellows going about. The outfit
may be profitable as l learn one can
be had for from two to three pounds. III
one instance l counted eleven persons
riding on one of these donkey carts.
The other extreme in the matter of
transportation is also found here in the
way of large traction engines. One
came putting and rattling up the street,
turning corners, and going up and
down grades as though it had been do
ing that same thing for century or
two. 1t was drawing four immense
wagons, which were loaded with aDood-
en- railway ties-I wondered that they
were not made of stone; but they were
old ones, and I do not doubt but that,
like the buildings, they last much
longer than with US. Besides these,
are the usual methods of locomotion
and transportation familiar to US at
home. The horses are particularly good
and everybody drives like Jehu.
But we have kept our one-horse
Haunting car waiting-they are all one-
hOrSe-anU SO We SeG aoOaEu iOI all
hours ride about the city.
The car is simply two-wheeled af-
fair. with horse and driver in front, and
seats behind for two or four persons,
, sitting back to back, facing ontwards.
You must not attempt TO get good
view OF more than one side of the road
at a time, except at the risk of tumb-
. ling out and breaking your neck on a
stone wall. Aside from this and other
; little drawbacks. 1t is a very pleasant
vehicle, and one altogether peculiar to
this very pretty country. We start for
an hours ride, but we are no sooner
under way than the driver informs us
that we should by all means take. adj.
vantage of the foine dayn to visit
Blarney Castle. which ia distant "nine
miles out and six miles back" as the
Il crow flies. This Is the first conundrum
o we have run across since we landed